craig smith matthew 5:8 over and over i hear it again that the father desires pure heart not to seek earthly treasure or the favor of man but to be found with pureness of heart chorus pure heart is what the father desires holy heart purified by god’s holy fire broken heart, proven to be faithful and true fashion in me a heart that’s thirsting for you search ever chamber, expose them to me create motives of honor and simplicity may you find faithfulness, integrity a heart which is worthy for your eyes to see chorus my only ambition is to stand before you and find i was pleasing in your sight and obedient child of god, faithful and true found with pureness of heart chorus the pure heart is free of mixed motives. it is one emptied of self, and filled with total devotion to the lord.–craig smith in the natural realm, when we speak of the heart, we are referring to the chief physical organ in the human body. though failure of other human organs can result in death, no other part plays a more important life sustaining role than that of the heart. this is also true in the spiritual realm. throughout biblical history, the heart has represented the man himself. the very center of his every emotion and appet*te. it is no wonder then, that the lord requires we love him with all our heart. a heart wholly devoted to the lord is a heart which is pure, it has no admixture. it is not divided, polluted, or contaminated by foreign substances. the psalmist tells us (ps 51:16,17) god is not pleased with sacrifices and burnt offerings. in fact, he told the israelites, the very ones he set up the sacrificial system through, that he no longer took pleasure in their burnt offerings, and that the offerings had even become “worthless.” (is 1:11-13) the problem was not in his system, but was instead in the hearts of his people. he knew their hearts, and their hearts were void of the necessary total devotion and love for him. they were merely going through a heartless motion of meaningless religious ceremony. the result, “when you spread out your hands in prayer, i will hide my eyes from you, yes, even though you multiply prayers, i will not listen.” (is 1:15) he then appeals to them to repent of their sins and by doing so, even though their “sins are a scarlet, they will be washed white as snow…” i cannot help but mention the close parallel in israel’s situation then, with the present situation in our western culture today. according to various polling systems, the majority of people living in the united states have a belief in god. however, for a majority, we do not seem to have a great effect on our society. could it be that a great many of those polled are jus going through “meaningless religious ceremony”? we would all do well to compare our present relationships with christ with the early churches relationships to christ. once again, what pleases the father is the whole heart devoted to him. the acceptable sacrifices to the lord are no longer “burnt offerings” but instead “…a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart…” the word “broken” in these p*ssages refers to a crushing into the form of powder. if you were to take a small stone and toss it into a swift stream of water, the stone would resist the flow and quickly sink to the bottom. however, you could recover the same small stone, pound it into a fine powder, and then pour it from your hand into the stream and even though it is the same mineral substance, it no longer resists the stream’s flow, but instead floats wherever the stream carries it. in many ways we are like the small stone. with selfish, unsubmissive hearts, we resist god’s flow or direction and find ourselves sinking. however, if we are wise, we will approach the lord and ask him to reveal any and hurtful object in our hearts. reveal anything that divides us from a right relationship with him and restore us to the joy of our salvation. may our prayers be that he will crush us into submissive, totally devoted hearts. suddenly we will realize we are flowing with him and being totally fulfilled by our relationship with him, instead of living in the strife of resistance. we will never know total fulfillment, until he has from us a total heart, a whole heart, a pure heart.–craig smith